Top 12 GIRLS (Week 1)

Second verse - same as the first. Rank these girls 1-12 - giving 12 points to the person you think is MOST likely to be voted out and 1 point to the person who is LEAST likely to be voted out. After the eliminations Thursday night, you will get the number of points that you assigned to the two girls who were voted out.

MAKE THESE PICKS BEFORE 7:00 PM (CST) Wednesday night.

Also - after the girls performance, check back with the site to make your bonus picks before the results show on Thursday night.

Now, on to the girls ...

Alaina Whitaker, 16
"I am just like Carrie Underwood - only not as famous or good."
Alaina is the young girl from Oklahoma that they kept comparing to Carrie Underwood. All I have to say is that when we first saw Carrie Underwood audition, we knew that she was going to win. Two minutes after we watched Alaina audition, I totally forgot that I saw it. There are too many other young girls here with a bit more personality that will make them stand out. The most interesting thing about her now is that she is the captain of her pom squad and she is good at shopping. Unless Alaina pulls off something spectacular I think people will just forget to vote for her - even if they like her.

Alexandrea Lushington, 17
"I am as forgettable as this picture."
Who? Alexandrea? I have no clue who this girl is. All I know is that she writes "scripts" as her talent, she likes the Beatles and she has the same pose in this picture as my wife did on her first record. As far as I know she could be a young Whitney Houston or she could just as easily be an old Whitney Houston. Wait. I think I remember her audition. She had her 90+ year old grandma there that Seacrest was macking on. She sounded a little like Queen Melinda Doolittle. The difference is that Melinda was mature - so she was able to avoid some stupid mistakes that a 17 year old is bound to make.

Amanda Overmyer, 23
"Wanna arm wrestle?"
I don't think that anyone can say that Amanda doesn't have a good voice. It is powerful. There are just a couple of things that I wonder about her. What did this bad ass motorcycle ridin' tough girl act like when she was waiting in line for a day with ten thousand little pop stars to get into the first audition? Just the thought of her waiting in that line makes her seem so much less authentically tough. Also, how can she be 8 years younger than me but I still feel like she is older than my mom? Oh - and my third question. Is this picture supposed to be sexy? I am confused.

Amy Davis, 25
"I am so glad I left Grey's Anatomy to start my own show."
I was so ready to rip into Amy because she was didn't even make it past the 2nd round of Nashville Star, she is a model and she is in a cover band with some guys from Survivor. Then I read that her favorite quote was "His grace is sufficient for me." Assuming she isn't talking about one of those Survivor guys, I felt bad about tearing her apart. Then, when listing her influences, she said, "Definitely Patty Griffin. I have never been more affected by an artist!! I hope one day I can be even a fraction as good as her, both in song writing and singing." That is pretty admirable for any American Idol contestant. I guess that even though my web filtering software blocks me from some of the google links to her, she might not be so bad.

Asia'h Epperson, 19
"I borrowed this outfit from Haley Scarnato."
Asia'h is the girl who lost her dad just before her initial audition. She is also the missing consonant girl I talked about earlier. She has a great voice but could easily get lost in the mix like Vonzell or LaToya London. She says a couple of her talents are fashion and make-up. I didn't know you could just list things you like as talents. In that case, I would like to change my information in my High School yearbook to add the talents of hamburgers and poker.

Brooke White, 24
"The Matrix? Never saw it."
Brooke is the famed Rated R girl. She doesn't seem to have the best voice of all of the girls, but she might just be one of the nicest. That could take her pretty far. Brooke was supposedly on tour with Phil Vassar and released a CD two years ago, but she probably won't get lumped in with all of the negative publicity the other "professionals" will get. She says her influences are James Taylor, Carole King, Carly Simon and Hall&Oates among others. At least I would prefer that to Fergie and Amy Winehouse.

Carly Smithson, 24
"If only I had met Michael Johns before I got married ..."
Carly was one of our favorites from the first auditions. After doing more research we found that this Irish girl wasn't quite pretty enough to be grafted into the Corrs so she signed a solo record deal with MCA when she was 17. It was produced by one of my wife's favorite artists - Greg Alexander (New Radicals). They spent over $2 million on the record and it sold under 400 copies. Ouch. Some people think it is a crooked American Idol set-up to have her on the show like with Kristy Lee Cook (see below), but if she had to live through the pressure of a $2 million record and only selling 300 copies - I think she could use a break just as much as anyone else. On another note, every shot of her in Hollywood was with Michael Johns (another professional). Let's just hope nothing happens or else we will find Carly's fully tattooed husband beating the crap out of the Australian dude.

Joanne Borgella, 25
"I have a plus-size voice."
Joanne is a nice girl with a good voice. The thing that bugs me is that every time they feature her on the show, she talks about being a plus-size model or how she is big and beautiful. Then she talks about how it is hard to make it in the music industry as a plus-sized singer. If I were her, I would just stop talking about it and making it an issue. Well, that will be hard to do since she WAS the winner of Mo'Nique's Fat Chance reality show in 2005. She was crowned "Miss F.A.T" (Fabulous And Thick). Every young girl's dream. The good news is that size hasn't really mattered on American Idol - at least until you get to the final 4.

Kady Malloy, 18
"There is only one reason why I would take a sideways profile picture like this."
Kady is the girl who did the impression of Britney Spears in her first audition. She was actually a pretty good singer. When asked when she first started to sing, she said that she was singing in her mommy's tummy. That pretty much makes her a liar. Let's see what else she lied about. "I'm also a pretty good actress." Sure. "I am 18 years old." Kady, how are we supposed to believe you when you insist that you were a singing fetus? Now, if you said that you were doing impressions of Britney in your mom's tummy - just floating around naked and bald while drinking like a fish - I would believe it.


Kristy Lee Cook, 24
"Us country girls love sittin' on tires."
Kristy was an early favorite because she is pretty, has a nice voice and is a cage-fighter. Really - it was probably enough just to be a pretty cage-fighter. The problem is that she was signed to a record label that is associated with Clive Davis - so people are going crazy saying she should be kicked off the show. It also doesn't help that in this old music video, she is singing in front of a confederate flag on the wall. It is a small part of the video, but people are already calling her KKKristy. That is ridiculous, but it could eventually work against her. Looks like the fighting skills might come in handy.

Ramiele Malubay, 20
"Look for my picture in a hair salon near you."
Ramiele is a Filipino girl who is somewhere around 34 inches tall. Her favorite quote is "If you're hated, you're are doing something right." Hmmm. There are times that I would agree with that quote, but it sounds like this 20 year old has heard that a lot in her life from her parents - which either means she is doing stuff right all of the time or she is hated by a lot of people. I can totally picture her saying something on the show like, "I am here to win - not to make friends." There is someone who always says something like that in every reality show. They always lose. Then again, she could be the nicest girl in the world. I hate nice girls.

Syesha Mercado, 21
"Oh, my aching neck."
Syesha is the girl who lost her voice in Hollywood and had to communicate with little written signs. Apparently she is no stranger to show business. She was on ABCs version of AI called "The One". It was cancelled. She also did commercials for Nigerian beer, the MedVance Institute , calling "direk", KFC, and Florida. If you just watch the first 15 seconds of this video you will understand why she was a popular pre-Hollywood pick. She should go really far in this competition, but odds are that she will follow in the footsteps of Tamyra Gray, Christina Christian, Jennifer Hudson and Nadia Turner.